Jefferson County Judge: Jury won't be asked to recommend sentence of teen if he's convicted in 2012 Ensley quintuple slayings

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -If a jury convicts 19-year-old Reginald Mims of capital murder in the 2012 slayings of five men at a house in Ensley his attorneys want jurors to also recommend whether Mims should eventually get a crack at parole.

Usually, a jury in Alabama is only asked to recommend a sentence to a judge in capital murder cases where the defendant could be sentenced to death. In Mims' case, he can't face execution because he was too young at the time of the slayings.

Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Wallace today denied a motion filed last week by Mims' attorneys, Don Colee and Mary Kay Laumer, to have the jury recommend whether Mims should get a sentence of life with, or without, the possibility of parole, if convicted of capital murder at his trial. The trial is set to begin July 21.

Colee and Laumer stated in the motion that they were asking for an order before Mims' trial begins because if it were granted they would need to be immediately ready at the end of the trial to present testimony to a jury.

Under Alabama law, once a person convicted of capital murder in which the death penalty is an option then the jury makes a recommendation to a judge on whether that person should be sentenced to death or a prison term of life without the possibility of parole. The judge can accept or disregard the jury's recommendation - called judicial override.

For juvenile killers, however, the state's capital punishment law has been narrowed by the courts over the past decade.

First, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that defendants convicted of capital murder, but who were juveniles when the crime happened, can't be executed. That left Alabama judges with only one sentencing option - life without the possibility of parole - for juvenile killers charged with capital murder.

Then, two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that states such as Alabama must give judges more than one option for sentencing juveniles convicted of capital murder. An automatic life without the possibility of parole sentence was no longer acceptable.

The Alabama Legislature failed to enact legislation to amend the law. Colee and a few other attorneys who had juvenile clients with capital murder charges pending asked that the capital murder charges be dismissed since the state no longer a valid way to sentence juvenile killers. Those requests were denied but Colee and the others appealed the decision to the Alabama Supreme Court.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last September that judges can, under the existing law, also have the option to sentence juveniles to life with the possibility of parole. That court also set out factors the judges are to consider in whether the juveniles should get an eventual chance at parole.

Alabama Supreme Court justices, in their opinion, however, did not address whether the jury should be asked for a sentencing recommendation.

Under the Miller and Henderson decisions, Colee and Laumer argues in their motion, Mims "has an absolute constitutional right to have a jury to consider what sentence he should receive" if convicted of capital murder.

Colee said he believes Mims should have the same constitutional guarantees an adult convicted of capital murder would have. "It's a denial of equal protection," he said.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Michael Streety argued at today's hearing that there is no precedence and that the Alabama Supreme Court's decision implies that the sentencing is solely up to the judge.

Streety noted that a juvenile, 17-year-old Shirrell Smith, was recently convicted of capital murder in another court and is awaiting sentencing Aug. 4. That sentencing is begin done by Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Clyde Jones, without a recommendation of a jury. Smith will be one of the first - if not the first - juvenile sentenced for capital murder since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled.

Wallace said he doesn't believe there is any authority for a jury-recommended sentence under the current law or Alabama Supreme Court ruling. The judge said it would also be unclear as to how to instruct the jury. The judge said he doesn't see how Mims would be prejudiced by a not having a jury make a recommendation.

Also, in denying the motion Wallace said he thinks he is in a better position to judge those particular sentencing factors.